Tumwebaze should learn mature politics The Capital Gang aired on December 6, in which President Museveni featured, was recorded a day before at State House Entebbe. It was just a two-hour recording unprecedented to others where Museveni has featured and the show commenced too late and ended very late. This Capital FM talk show by Oskar Semweya-Musoke also featured the regular gangsters: Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, Ofwono Opondo, Abdu Katuntu, Lydia Wanyoto, Beti Kamya and Dr Chris Baryomunsi. Many lessons can be learnt from this show with the president but I would like to dwell on the conduct of Frank Tumwebaze, the minister for the Presidency and Kampala. Towards the end of the recording, Tumwebaze grabbed Ssemujju’s microphone and pushed it away. That was the time Ssemujju was tasking Museveni to explain nepotism. Ssemujju wanted the president to clarify on how his wife was a cabinet minister, his son a quickly-high-ranking army officer and his brother always in juicy positions in government. This is not to mention other relatives, friends, in-laws and opportunists. Tumwebaze lost his cool, exhibited high levels of political intolerance and launched a direct attack on Ssemujju before the head of state and cameras. On May 1 this year, Tumwebaze authored an article in the press titled “Remembering Brig Noble Mayombo”. This was during the 7th commemoration of the death of the gallant soldier. In the article, Tumwebaze wrote: “Many of us owe our political journeys to him [Mayombo]. He stood for knowledge, logic and intellectual engagement, tenets that are so rare now in our elite society. He despised reactionaries and discouraged hate speech…” Did Tumwebaze really mean this of Mayombo or learn anything from him? To avoid anarchy as we journey towards the 2016 general elections, national leaders need to exhibit high levels of tolerance and sincere acceptance of different political views. Francis Kasibin Mutaka,
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 12:19:22 +0000